The Battle of Memel or the Siege of Memel (German: Erste Kurlandschlacht) took place on the European Eastern Front during World War II when the Soviets launched their Memel Offensive Operation (Russian: Мемельская наступательная операция) in late 1944. The offensive drove surviving German forces in the area that is now Latvia and Lithuania into a small bridgehead in Klaipėda (Memel) and its port and led to a three-month siege of that position. The bridgehead was finally crushed as part of a subsequent Soviet offensive, the East Prussian Offensive of early 1945.